<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>One Duet, One Lullaby by rulanarinrush</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22432183">One Duet, One Lullaby</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/rulanarinrush/pseuds/rulanarinrush'>rulanarinrush</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, BE Annette, BL Felix, Crimson Flower Route, F/M, Set in Chapter 16 of CF, Spoilers for Annette and Felix's supports</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-01-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-01-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 08:56:07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,820</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22432183</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/rulanarinrush/pseuds/rulanarinrush</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>At Arianrhod, Annette and Felix sing one last song together.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Annette Fantine Dominic/Felix Hugo Fraldarius</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>41</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Bread Eaters</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>One Duet, One Lullaby</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/bchemicalromance/gifts">knoir (bchemicalromance)</a>, <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/AJadeLion/gifts">AJadeLion</a>, <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/starsun/gifts">starsun</a>, <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/quags1re/gifts">quags1re</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p><i> Finishes a fic one month after I get the idea.</i> I'm fine I'm fine I'm fine.</p>
<p>Huge shoutout to <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/starsun">starsun</a> for betaing this fic when it was a mess. You're awesome. Thanks to <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/AJadeLion">AJadeLion</a> and <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/bchemicalromance/pseuds/knoir">knoir</a> for helping me come up with this idea.</p>
<p>I do not own Fire Emblem or its characters.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Killing has become something that Annette has become used to. But she’s never gotten used to what happens after.</p>
<p>The Officer’s Academy trained students for battle. Not for war. Not for the heavy smell of copper that lingers after every battle, not for the bloodstains on her hands that she can never wash off.</p>
<p>Not how to handle the small, unbearable voice in the back of her mind that makes each step into Faerghus heavier.</p>
<p>The assault on Arianrhod was a terrible battle. All the Kingdom soldiers in the fortress were dead, a result of the code of honor they took. An oath to protect their mad king. The code of a knight. Ingrid is dead. And Felix—</p>
<p>Felix. Felix. Unlike Ingrid, the mage never saw Felix fall. </p>
<p>Even so, Annette can’t turn away. She wasn’t assigned to be part of the main force of the Imperial Army, instead working to draw the soldiers in the fort out from the other entrances. She knows exactly what fate befell every soldier that was drawn out, but had not looked at their faces yet. She needs to find someone. </p>
<p><i>Father, father,</i> Annette thinks. <i>Are you dead? Did you die before I had the chance to figure out everything that made you leave me and mother?</i></p>
<p>So she wanders through the fort inspecting every fallen body, leaving no stone unturned, no corpse left untouched. Her search doesn’t stop until—</p>
<p>“—Annette,” someone calls, and its like every ghost that has ever haunted her returns. She knows that voice.</p>
<p>She loves that voice.</p>
<p>“Annette,” Felix calls again, and her wind spell dies at her fingertips. “Annette.”</p>
<p>He is a force she can’t pull away from. He calls her name like she is a dream, like if he stops, she’ll disappear. </p>
<p>There’s a lump in her throat now. Damn it. She can’t leave him now. Not like this. She rushes over to his side and drops to her knees, bringing his head to her lap. Slick blood from his head pools down onto her dress, staining her dress crimson. There’s a thick, heavy gash from a lance that runs from one side of his body to the other, and it’s a miracle that he’s still alive.</p>
<p>She should make this quick. She should just end it quickly, and it would be so, so easy. He’s bleeding out in her arms, and he’s at her mercy.<br/>
“Annette,” he says. “You’re here.” <i>(You’re with the enemy.)</i></p>
<p>“I’m here,” Annette answers, but she can’t bring herself to smile. “I’ve missed you.”</p>
<p>Felix grins, or half-smiles anyway, a cruel parody of their situation. He’s dying. He’s dying, and Annette knows, oh she knows, that she can’t save him. She can’t cast a heal spell on him, lest he kill her.</p>
<p>He is her enemy. She knows better than to underestimate him. He will not stop until his last breath. Faerghus demands it.</p>
<p>“I’m sorry that I can’t save you,” Annette apologizes, lacing her gloved hands with his. “But can I,” Annette says, eyeing the fatal wound on his torso. “Help you?” (She knows he’ll get what she means.)</p>
<p>For a man bleeding out, he shakes his head rather vigorously. “No,” he answers, and goddess, it has been so long since they’ve talked. She wants to hear his voice at every moment, at every hour. His words are soft but firm, his voice memorized like the spells she’d learned by heart. “I want to hear you sing for me.”</p>
<p>She couldn’t have heard him right. Sing for him? That’s such a cruel joke. “I don’t think I can do that.”</p>
<p>“Please Annette,” Felix says, and he sounds more desperate than he’s ever sounded. He never begs. Never. “Just one last time.”</p>
<p>“Okay,” Annette says. “Okay. Okay, okay, okay,” she repeats, like anything will change his mind. “Okay. What song do you want to hear?”</p>
<p>“Maybe I could hear that bear song. Or that swamp beasty song. It doesn’t matter.” His breathing is so shallow now. It scares her.</p>
<p>“Alright,” Annette starts shakily. “I’ll sing the cakes song, if you don’t mind.”</p>
<p>“Ah. Of course. What you think about the most.”</p>
<p>“Felix!” Annette squeaks indignantly. His snort in response does nothing to calm her nerves. If anything, it only makes her more nervous. This is it. This is the last memory that she’ll ever have of Felix.</p>
<p>“To-today’s dinner is steak a-and then a cake that’s-that’s…” Annette begins to sing, her voice shaking like a leaf in the wind. Damn it. When did her voice get so weak? “That’s yummy-yum..n-now it’s time to- time to-”</p>
<p>She can’t do this. She can’t. “I’m sorry,” she says, her voice tight and miserable, and the first tears that she had been holding back burst through the dams. Then the next. And the next. These songs were sacred, just for the two of them. The only person that has heard these songs is Felix. Only Felix.</p>
<p>“Annette,” Felix says, gripping her hand tight enough to snap her out of it. “Enough. I’ll do it,” he says with no vitriol in his voice.</p>
<p>So he opens his mouth, and—</p>
<p>“Today’s cake is a steak and then a cake that’s yummy yum-yum~” he sings, and her eyes widen with shock. It’s the first time she’s ever heard him sing. “Now it’s time to fill my tummy tummy tum~”</p>
<p>
  <i>(“I’m not great at harmonizing.”)</i>
</p>
<p>Annette, to her credit, does not wince. <i>“Goddess,” she had overheard Professor Manuela say five years ago. “Even the crows sing better than him.”</i></p>
<p>She has to admit that the professor had a point. His notes were terribly off, never quite right. But his voice? Always perfect.</p>
<p>She grins for the first time since she’s entered the fortress. “Not bad.” </p>
<p>“Terrible, you mean.” Felix tries to laugh, and ends up wheezing instead, short and laboured. Annette has to remind herself to breathe. “If you don’t start singing soon, I’m going to keep singing, and no one wants to hear that.” </p>
<p>“That’s not true,” Annette says, her voice strong and steady at last. “If I’m going to sing, you have to sing too.”</p>
<p>Felix gapes at her, and had this been anywhere but her, Annette is sure she would’ve been doubled over with laughter. Shocked expressions do not suit him. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”</p>
<p>“Stay awake,” Annette says, with her confidence back. “I want to hear you <i>sing.</i>”</p>
<p>“Today’s cake is a steak and then a cake that’s yummy yum yum~”</p>
<p>“Today’s cake is a steak and then a cake that’s yummy yum yum~” Felix repeats.</p>
<p>“Now it’s time to fill my tummy tummy tum~”</p>
<p>“Now it’s time to fill my tummy tummy tum~”</p>
<p>
  <i>(When Annette is sixteen, Felix catches her singing and dancing to herself for the first time.<br/>
She’s absolutely mortified, he seems to take delight in her humiliation. He doesn’t actually, but she’s embarrassed anyway.)</i>
</p>
<p>“Oh this mountain of sweets and treats that I long to eats~” </p>
<p>“That sounds a little too close to your heart.”</p>
<p>“Less commentary Felix, more singing!” </p>
<p>
  <i>(When Annette turns seventeen, she almost barrels down the dining hall staircase on an absolute sugar high eating several of Mercie’s baked treats. Felix catches her before she could hurt herself. If her heart beat a little faster when he pressed her close to his chest, well, no one had to know that. He was just stupidly handsome. That’s all.)</i>
</p>
<p>“Oh, stacks of steaks and cakes and crumbs and yums~”</p>
<p>“Oh, stacks of steaks and cakes and crumbs and yums~”</p>
<p>
  <i>(When Annette gets caught singing to herself again, she isn’t surprised to see Felix behind her again. The absolute villain!  You can’t watch someone’s singing and dancing without telling them!)</i>
</p>
<p>"You add a little sugar and then a little more~”</p>
<p>“You add a little sugar ... and then a little more~” Felix sings, showing the first signs of fatigue. Of their reality.</p>
<p>
  <i>(When the Red Wolf Moon comes Annette finds she doesn’t mind an audience anymore. It’s limited to just one person though.)</i>
</p>
<p>“And watch the cake fluff up, more and more and more~”</p>
<p>“And watch the cake fluff up… more and more and more~”</p>
<p>
  <i>(When the professor asked her to join their house, she agreed.)</i>
</p>
<p>“Cake tastes really really good~”</p>
<p>“I am very sure that wasn’t part of the original song.”</p>
<p>
  <i>(When her best friend implored her to talk to Felix about her feelings, Annette squeaked and wanted to bury her head under the sand. “Next week, after the professor receives the revelation from the goddess,” Mercedes said. “I think that would be perfect.”)</i>
</p>
<p>“They come in all shapes, but each is yummy yummy yum~”</p>
<p>“They come… in all shapes,” a sharp gasp for air, a break in the melody. “But each is yummy yummy yum~”</p>
<p>
  <i>(When the Imperial Army raided the holy tomb, Annette left everyone else behind.)</i>
</p>
<p>“But we can’t forget the steak, no not the steak~”</p>
<p>“But we can’t forget… the steak… no not the steak~” Felix sounds a little bit stronger here. Close to his heart perhaps?</p>
<p>
  <i>(When Annette faces her father on the very first battle, there are no tears. Only anger remains in the shell of the girl she left behind at Garreg Mach. Why did you leave were mom and I not good enough for you how am I supposed to fill this hole in my heart now why are you running away why can’t I hate you-)</i>
</p>
<p>“And now the meal is complete, and now I’ll eat the steak~”</p>
<p>“And now the meal is ... complete… and now…”</p>
<p>
  <i>(Five years pass, and Annette Fantine Dominic is dead to Faerghus, but not in the memories of the Lions. They live on as ghosts in her memories.)</i>
</p>
<p>“And the cake is in my belly, and it’s yummy yummy yum!”</p>
<p>“And the cake… is…”</p>
<p>
  <i>(On the Lone Moon, Annette sings along with the boy she loves, and it’s far too late.)</i>
</p>
<p>So that’s it. Her last song, a duet with the one person who truly made her fall in love. </p>
<p>“Annette,” the professor calls, simply but not unsympathetic. Her fantasy collapses, the storm arrives. “We have to go now. Before the Kingdom troops send reinforcements.”</p>
<p>It’s over. She allows herself to bask in the moment, just for a moment, before it all comes crashing down.</p>
<p>He’s not dead yet. Almost dead, but not good enough. </p>
<p>“Thank you, Annette.”</p>
<p>“You know I have to do this.”</p>
<p>“I know. Don’t worry.”</p>
<p>“I’ll come back for you,” Annette whispers, her voice weakening with each word and her heart threatening to leap out of her chest with each breath. “I’ll come back for you, I promise.”</p>
<p>
  <i>I love you.</i>
</p>
<p>“I know.”</p>
<p>His eyes are closed now. Her fingers trace the wrinkles under his eyes down to the gentle slope of his nose down to his mouth. He has never looked more beautiful.</p>
<p>Then her hands find his throat, and she pushes her thumbs down, softly putting him to sleep.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Gilbert definitely isn't the only reason Annette joins the Black Eagles on the Crimson Flower path, but I've chosen to highlight it here.</p>
<p>Bel how could you get me into Felannie and not expect consequences. You know I oopeth and break nice things.</p>
<p>You're allowed to yell at me. Have a wonderful day.</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>